


Cold feet and candy canes

by floatingaway4



Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:02:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27917200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floatingaway4/pseuds/floatingaway4
Summary: Henry is away on a business trip but Alex is still taking care of him.
Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor
Comments: 24
Kudos: 166
Collections: RWRB Winterfest 2020





	Cold feet and candy canes

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to wait and post this on the 8th, but I need to space my stories out a little bit so I'm posting this one today. Also because vio told me THERE ARE NO RULES :-) 
> 
> For the RWRB Winterfest 2020, prompt 8: fuzzy socks

Henry staggers into his hotel room, already exhausted. An early December weather front grounded his plane somewhere in Iowa, and he’d been forced to wait at the airport for hours before he was allowed to take off again. His security team, nervous about having him sit relatively unprotected in the tiny airport terminal, had insisted he stay on the plane. He’d fallen asleep in the reclined seat, with his head at an odd angle, and then dreamed about plane crashes. He’s always hated traveling, and avoided it when he could. 

Until Alex. 

When it became his only way to see the man he loved, he’d suddenly become very eager to get on the nearest jet. He’d never jogged up the stairs of a plane until he started getting blow jobs after he landed. 

Now, he dislikes traveling because it so often takes him _away_ from Alex. And sure enough, he’d left Alex in bed at some god-awful hour this morning to fly to L.A. on shelter business. At least Pez will be at some of the meetings, which will make them somewhat more bearable. 

Henry opens his suitcase and starts hanging up a few things, unrolling his neckties, and…

He picks up his phone and texts:

**_Did you put socks in my suitcase?_ **

His phone lights up with a call that he immediately answers.

“You like ’em?” Alex's voice is bright and warm. 

“Is this your face?” 

Alex cackles. “You can get any photo you want on socks, apparently.” 

“Any photo?” Henry asks suggestively. 

“Your Highness! That’s not very royal of you,” Alex says, his voice light with fake indignation. 

“Clearly you’re unfamiliar with my ancestors.” Henry holds up the bright blue socks that are dotted with Alex’s smiling face. He can’t stop himself from giggling. They remind Henry of the campaign buttons Alex sent him once. “These are amazing, love.” 

He hears Alex laugh, can imagine him smiling just like all the little Alex heads staring at Henry from his new socks. 

“I’m guessing you made it to the hotel, if you’re unpacking?” 

“Finally,” Henry sighs, sitting down on the end of the bed. “I could have cycled here faster, I think.” He lays back, rubbing Alex’s socks between his fingers while he talks. “They already had to postpone one meeting for me. And I’m not really in the mood now, but I can’t inconvenience the others any longer.” 

“When’s your meeting, baby?” 

Henry looks at his watch and groans. “In an hour.” 

“You might have to skip the tea for some real caffeine, you know.” 

Henry murmurs his agreement. 

“Did you find both pairs?” 

Henry sits up. “There are two? Hang on,” he crosses the room to search through his suitcase. “Ah,” he says into his phone, “red and white striped fuzzy socks?” 

“I thought they’d match your candy-cane jim-jams,” Alex tells him, using a terrible British accent. With a jolt, Henry remembers the time Bea had betrayed him by telling Alex what he was wearing. He also remembers how that night led to the first real conversation he had with Alex, about something meaningful, not just about scary turkeys or tv shows. 

“I’m pretty sure I didn’t pack those, so maybe I’ll wear the whole outfit when I come home.”

He swears he can hear Alex opening and closing drawers in their dresser. “No, you have to wear the socks now. Because…” Alex seems to get distracted by something and he’s quiet for a minute. “Because I know how fucking cold your feet get at night. And since you don’t have me to warm them up for you, you’re gonna need socks.” 

Henry catches a glimpse of his face in the big mirror on the wall, sees the blush and the infatuated smile tugging at his lips. 

“Well,” Henry says, clearing his throat to hide the fact that he’s actually emotional over a silly pair of socks. It’s just that so few people have really done thoughtful things for him in the past, and almost no one outside his family. At school, he usually got expensive gifts from the other children’s parents, gifts the staff put away when he brought them home, things that were more about impressing royalty than making Henry happy. Very few ten year olds need a Tiffany inkwell. “I’ll be sure to wear these later,” he tells Alex, “although I’d much prefer to put my feet against your warm skin.” 

Alex makes a frustrated noise that’s half-laugh and half-groan. “I miss you already.” 

“I miss you too, my love.” There’s a knock at his hotel room door. “I have to go, I’ll call you later?” 

“You better,” Alex shoots back. He sighs deeply over the line. “I love you, sweetheart.” 

“I love you, too,” Henry says. 

They talk every morning and night and text between calls. Henry tells Alex how he made it through one of the more boring meetings by remembering he had Alex’s face all over his feet inside his loafers. They have phone sex on the second night and the fourth afternoon, and on the fifth night Henry finally flies home. He skips up the steps to the front door, grabbing his own bags so Shaan doesn’t feel obligated to come inside with him. The palace was never particularly welcoming from the outside, but the light coming from the big bay window of their home is one of the best things he’s ever seen. 

At least until the door swings open and Alex is standing there, wearing Henry’s flannel candy cane pajamas. The sleeves and pant legs are cuffed, because they’re just a little too long. It only makes him even more adorable. 

Henry drops his bags on the snowy stoop and laughs. Alex wraps his arms around Henry’s neck and Henry picks him up and swings him in a circle. Alex rests his forehead against Henry’s. “Welcome home, baby.” 

That night, Henry doesn't need his fuzzy socks. Instead, he laughs his ass off as Alex does a strip tease for him. It’s surprisingly sexy for someone wearing red flannel pajamas decorated with candy canes, and earns him a spectacular blow job. They continue to make up for a week apart, until they’re both exhausted and fucked out. Afterward, he ignores Alex's half-hearted grumbling and wriggles his toes against Alex’s warm skin. It’s the best he’s slept in a week. 


End file.
